BICKNELL — Officials are noting growth in the downtown this year as the city readies for a $1 million downtown revitalization project.
This summer at least six dilapidated buildings on Main Street have been razed, three of which had stood vacant and crumbling for more than five years.
More dilapidated properties, like two at the corner of Second and Main Streets, have been sold at tax sales and are awaiting demolition.
Mayor Jon Flickinger said the progress in the area is prompting some store fronts, vacant for most of the last five years, to again open shop.
Three buildings in the 200 block of Main Street have recently been sold, he said. White River Realty, another store-front and several new apartments will all be moving in this year.
Flickinger has also been in communication with an Odon-based Amish bakery interested in moving into the block.
“I don’t know if this movement has had anything to do with the revitalization that’s coming downtown, but I’d like to think so,” he said. “People have spent that last however many years moving out of the downtown area, and now we’re seeing people coming back, businesses coming in, activity happening.”
The downtown revitalization, which is slated to start this fall, will bring new curbs, sidewalks, some decorative iron fences and streetlights.
Officials are also looking for a second grant to build a gazebo to add a pocket park in the 200 block of Main Street for live music, community picnics and social gatherings.
“This has turned into the community’s effort to spruce up the area, and that’s the point of everything we do, to make a better home and a better life for the people who live here in Bicknell,” he said. “I’ve noticed that some of the places where we’ve put in these new homes, the properties around them are seeing some sprucing up, too.
“That’s good for the community.”
In the last two years, he said, the city has constructed 14 houses and two duplexes, using funds from two Neighborhood Stabilization Project grants through the state.
“The saying goes, ‘If you build it, they will come,’ and that’s really what my hope is,” Flickinger said. “I hope this movement, whatever it is that started it, keeps moving forward with the revitalization, bringing people together again, brings businesses downtown, commerce, friendship, community again.”
Flickinger said the response of the renovation already in progress has been overwhelmingly positive, adding area alumni in town last weekend for the Heritage Festival have expressed excitement in the renovation.
The city is also working to move the police station into the old Casey’s building on Main Street, Flickinger said, adding accessibility to city services.
“It’s important to have a city that’s accessible, and right now the police department really isn’t,” he said. “We need a building for them that people can come in and address the issues they have, and a place for the officers to be safe, too.”
The city has applied for a $50,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help remodel the police department to suit the needs of the law enforcement agency.